Markus Jooste’s alleged former lover escalates bid to access frozen money by Reserve Bank

JOHANNESBURG - Markus Jooste’s alleged former lover Berdine Odendaal has escalated her bid to access heaps of money frozen by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB).

Odendaal has applied for leave to appeal before the Supreme Court of Appeal after already losing two court bids.

She wants the court to compel the central bank to continue paying her R150,000 a month for living expenses from her blocked accounts.

The SARB initially attached four bank accounts including a Nedbank account belonging to Odendaal back in May 2021.

The central bank raised some suspicion about a R60 million loan she had received from a horse racing company.

READ: FSCA says Jooste's death won't impact ongoing investigation

The SARB claimed there was an exchange control contravention when the funds were wired from abroad from Mayfair Speculators, a company associated with disgraced and now late Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste.

After the attachment of the bank accounts, Odendaal was paid a series of monthly instalments of R150,000 from the block funds.

These payments for her living expenses ran from July 2021 to March 2022.

The SARB ceased the payments when Odendaal demanded the central bank also release funds to cover her legal costs – labelling it a repudiation of the agreement.

In court papers, Odendaal says she doesn’t believe the SARB has any leg to stand on in denying her access to her money.